This Is My 50,000th Techdirt Post, And I'm Busy Working On 50,001
from the milestones dept
So here's a bit of a fun milestone. This blog post will be my 50,000th blog post on Techdirt, which is kind of insane when you think about it. I noticed last year that I was approaching that number and have checked back periodically to see where I was. Last month I realized I was 100 posts away, and have been watching the counter move along until now, the 50,000th post on the site.
For what it's worth, the Guinness World Records folks still claim that the world record for "most prolific professional blogger" was Darren Murph and his measly 17,212 posts for Engadget in 2010. By that time I already had over 30,000 posts, but apparently Guinness is not too concerned about accuracy. In 2014, I had reached out to Guinness just to suggest that their record there was wrong, but rather than investigating the matter themselves, they sent me a huge form to apply for my own record, which would involve a ton of work to "document" all my posts, and, honestly, who the hell has time for that, when there are more blog posts to write.
Anyway, just for fun, I thought I'd link back to some other "milestone" posts, starting with my very first post, which was actually a copy of an email newsletter I sent out in August of 1997. For the first few years, it really was mostly just a newsletter, and I'd take the emails and post them to the website as well. The first "real" blog post to the site came on March 12, 1999, and was about E*Trade launching a corporate venture fund. Exciting stuff, I know. The 10,000th post came on January 2nd of 2003, discussing how American kids weren't texting as much as kids elsewhere (of course, back then we called it "wireless messaging" because "texting" hadn't been invented yet in the old times). The reasoning? More use of instant messaging on computers at home as compared to in other countries (and less use of public transportation). I'd imagine crappy phones had a role as well.
The 25,000th post was in November of 2006 and was about banks acting surprised that insiders were a big data breach threat -- again, not the most exciting of Techdirt fare, but I don't make the rules. I just write the posts. Anyway, given that I got to 25,000 posts by 2006, it's pretty clear that my prolific nature has slowed quite a bit in my later years. Those first 25,000 or so came in about 7 years, and it took another 14 to get the next 25,000 posts. I'm going to have to pick up the pace to get to 100,000 posts.
At least I know I have more than 17,212.
Anyway, a special thanks to everyone who has visited Techdirt over the years, whether you've read all 50,000 of my posts, or this is your first one. It's been quite a journey, and it wouldn't have happened if no one ever read anything I wrote...
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Reader Comments
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Congrats!
Conglaturation! Thanks for making this website the place to which I keep coming back, and even give money (as my "insider" label attests)!
Thanks for everything you did to get this far!
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Congrats! 🎉
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O, from this time forth, my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing wroth
Happy next 50000, Mike!
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Clearly you’re just a shill for Big Number.
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Re: Why do they even let this guy post anymore?
he never posts anything "classic techdirt"
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Re:
"Clearly you’re just a shill for Big Number."
Ah, the Googleplex?
...wait a minute...
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When did we first exchange blog comments about OOTP? That would have been around the time I started reading here - so maybe 2000 or 2001? Looking forward to post 100,000!
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Is the paperwork for correcting the record something you have to do, or something somebody else could?
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Here's to another 50,000 posts, Mike, each and every one of them exposing how people in copyright, patent, trademark, government, law enforcement, etc misbehave - and their sympathizers moaning and screaming and cursing like the Nigerian 419 scammers profiled on 419eater.com.
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Thankyou
Sadly, TechDirt is the last, and only place i come for news. Not very well-rounded, Eh?
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Looked at the links, including that very first blog post. Did people really call it "the hi-tech industry" back then? It all feels so charmingly young. :D
Many congratulations, Mr Masnick.
Onward to 100,000! Onward and upward! :)
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For those of us who haven't read all 50,000, can you sum them all up in one paragraph for us?
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Re:
"People do stupid shit and we report it" is one way to sum it all up...
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We're talking numerology here, and there's only one question:
Looking back at content milestones instead of counter milestones,
there's really only ONE number that matters:
What number was the blog post counter up to when you coined the
term "The Streisand Effect"?!
(Asking for a friend...)
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Re: We're talking numerology here, and there's only one question
We have run the numbers... and it was post #19,850
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Congratulations
Out of the ink that covers me
Black as the font from thin to bold,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of online polls,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of trolls,
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of real life,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with lies and smears the page,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my blog.
A small, shamelessly stolen and casually amended tribute, Mike. Congratz and here's to another 50,000 attempts at bringing a little more sanity into an increasingly fscked-up world.
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50,000 milestone
Seriously, congratulations, Mike. Good on you
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Terns
Get an intern (or two) to collate your posts and to fill out the Guinness paperwork. This would be ideal for business/marketing students looking for an internship.
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Congrats Mike!
Congrats on such a prolific career. Happy to be an Insider helping to keep things going. Hope all is well, and I look forward to the next 50,000!
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Congratulations!
Way to go, Mike! What an amazing milestone! Keep fighting the good fight(s), and you'll continue to have readers like me cheering you on and supporting Techdirt. Here's hoping you still have wind in your sails when you reach another awesome milestone of 100,000 posts!
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I've been happily reading anonymously since 1998. I doubt I've read every one of your posts Mike, but I consumed them all in the early days! Now with more contributors, it's a bit more time consuming so I pick and choose.
Anyway, well done!
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Time
"and, honestly, who the hell has time for that, when there are more blog posts to write. "
Well, since you stripped him of his only claim to fame may I suggest our dear friend Shiva Ayyadurai.
This record seems particularly well suited to his special talents.
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Stop writing longer, well-thought posts, i guess? More short and blurby!
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